Entrepreneurship

A few years ago, Rachel Bernier-Green was looking for an outlet from the stress of her intense job at a multinational accounting firm and discovered a passion for baking. It didn’t take long before friends and family were encouraging her to sell her baked goods to the masses. Rachel founded ‘Laine’s Bake Shop, LLC in 2013 using a shared kitchen space, working on the side to get her business off the ground. After a few years of baking part-time, Rachel decided to finally quit her job and start a bake shop full-time with her husband Jaryd.

April is often associated with spring cleaning and reorganizing, which means you finally made the time go through that overflowing junk drawer or to organize last year’s financial statements for the tax filing deadline. But when it comes to your finances, you can use this time to do more than just file your tax return documents thanks to the resources provided as part of National Financial Literacy Month.

Small business owners are strongly opposed to the FCC’s recent move to repeal rules enforcing net neutrality, according to recent scientific opinion polling. Specifically, the poll found that 56% of small business owners oppose the repeal of the rules, with nearly 4 in 10 (39%) strongly opposed.

Small Business Majority submitted a letter to the California Assembly in support of California's Homemade Food Operartions Act (AB 626), which will help legitimize and create a legal framework for microenterprise home kitchen operations in the state. It will improve public health safeguards around the existing informal food economy by legalizing small-scale home food operations and ensuring health and safety standards. Finally, the bill will enable home cooks—mostly women, immigrants, and people of color—to use their skills to generate income.

Mark Herbert, California Director for Small Business Majority, submitted a letter in support of the California Prompt Payment bill (AB 1552), which would require all public utilities to promptly pay vendors that submit valid invoices. Prompt payment measures such as this will help small businesses compete more effectively in bidding processes for contracts. The bill requires that public utilities will be required to pay vendor invoices within 30 days.

Recent scientific opinion polling found small business owners overwhelmingly believe Congress should pass legislation requiring businesses to list their true identity when forming. Such legislation is being considered to fight fraud committed by anonymous shell companies, including when larger companies use these entities to unfairly compete for government small business set-asides. Additionally, the poll found small business owners think such legislation would benefit, rather than burden, their business by protecting them from fraud and allowing them to compete fairly for government contracts.